Wednesday, 30 November 2016

I just did a major COMC Credit ---> Blowout Cards cash-in in anticipation of Black November/Friday, and by the time this posts they should arrive and be busted. So, in the meantime, let's downscale it a bit with a trio of $1 hanger packs from the Dollarama.

Repack #1:

2011-12 Biography of a Season - Marian Gaborik - What better way to start off than with a new card for my 2/14 collection? This is especially nice, as I don't have too many all-star uniforms in the collection. And yes, this card is cut in some sort of slightly non-rectangular shape. Can't say I care.
1991 Seventh Inning Sketch - Scott Turner
1993 Parkhurst - Gary Shuchuk

1990 Bowman Hat Tricks - Brett Hull - I'm sure these will start getting repetitive at some point, but right now it is nice to at least get an insert instead of the standard base from this set.
2010 Donruss - Jeff Schultz

Tuesday, 29 November 2016

Another familiar topic title here at the blog. Simple explanation is as follows: The costs (esp. for shipping from the US) balloon when the shipment moves from a PWE sized 4 cards to 5. Henceforth, 4 is the best value for me when ordering off that site.

While I'm not ready to automatically proclaim this the greatest photograph in my Kitchener Rangers alumni collection (maybe I should do a list), this should easily qualify as the greatest posed photograph in that collection.

While some of these team checklist cards are pretty well done, this one seems as generic as possible.

The lost season of 2004-05 may not have been the best one for hockey card collectors, but there were still some nice photos hiding in the handful of releases from that year.

Staying with hockey to start off the next envelope with my third Kitchener Rangers binder card of the break, with a bonus appearance of Stanley!

Because I didn't have any 1995 Fleer in the collection, here's the first. Muresan does not translate well to this design.

How did I not have this card in my Expos binder already?

And my second envelope wraps up with a set completer.

And this is an envelope with 3 cards to finish off my 16-17 Hoops set, and a bonus card of Sullinger that will either be added to my Raptors collection, or be sent as an attempt at a TTM auto from Masai Ujiri.

Time to slip away from the Expo, and dip into the ol' mailbag. When I busted a box of Field Access, one of my autograph pulls was a /99 parallel of Marcus Mariota. Knowing an Oregon Ducks super collector was a good thing, as I parlayed that into this trade package.

For the first time in a long time, my most desired rookie is not of someone who is making his debut in Toronto, but of Denver's Jamal Murray. He's from my hometown, and that's not something that happens much outside of hockey.

But here's some Raptors content. I saw the acetate, and was trying to file it as a Donruss Elite Series card, completely ignoring the large Limited logo between the auto and the name.

At least there's no doubt where these come from. Demarre Carroll seems to have been all over auto sets last season, and I love adding them to my collection.

Staying in Toronto, but shifting to baseball, here are some Black & Blue Jays.

Here's a nice high end base card of Josh Donaldson.

And another base card, this time less high-end, but this time of a set I had yet to see on this side of the border.

JA Happ's facsimile signature is nice. I wish he had an actual certified one with the Jays.

Edwin relic!

And an Edwin auto to end the Toronto portion of the trade! A decent enough signature, and it does nicely accentuate the Double Es. It looks unlikely that Edwin will be spending 2017 in a Jays uniform (I'm pre-posting this a few days in advance for Grey Cup weekend, so maybe something happened already), but at least he went out with a bang to end the wild-card the best way possible.

The usual person at the Expo that had Heritage High/Minors didn't have any this time around, so I failed to get this one there. Fortunately, Kerry came through with this insert.

The back is kinda interesting too.

This commemorates Flores' walk-off homer that took place just days after his tear-filled non-trade.

More Platinum.

And the other big card in the trade adds a Jacob DeGrom to my collection of autographs from the Mets young pitching staff. I thought that he didn't get the 'ultra fine sharpie" memo, but there seems to be a healthy mix of cards in the autograph portion that are signed with a similar pen. So I'll look on this as just a novel variation to the usual autographs.

And there you go! Unfortunately, the breaks of some of my Black November content did not contain much Oregon alum or Trail Blazers content.

Sunday, 27 November 2016

And the Expo recap posts end as I show off my last cards from the show - the hits.

Not hits, but some miscellaneous numbered cards to start. $30 a week habit is working on serial #'d insanity for hockey, and these, in the case of Leblanc and Klepis, were duplicate numbered card, while the Morrow was one of two Ice cards of his I picked up. So, these were my keepers from the numbered card barrage.

Next up, an absolute killer patch from SP Authentic. Since the colours on the Stadium Series swatches seem to match with the ones worn in these games, I tend to believe these are from the actual game.

Aesthetically, these might have been my favourite hits of the year. I'd put off adding one for a bit, hoping I'd get a chance to pull a cheap one from a show bin. Here was my chance.

Also from 15-16 SPX, this auto-relic is a perfect way to shift over to the autograph portion of these hits.

For some reason, I don't think the "1st 2 goal game 10/16/14" was printed on the card by Damon after signing the auto. Just a hunch based on a penmanship comparison.

With this as the final card to show off, my run of 17 straight Expo recap post peters out.

Saturday, 26 November 2016

Only one post to go after this as I show off the handful of hits I picked up that I could have shown with the appropriate decade like I did with the 90's autos, but elected not to.

I bought this just because I love when lengthy names have to squeeze their way onto cards. However, looking at what someone on COMC wants for this, maybe I should have submitted it at the Expo, and put it up for %80 off that price. Either way, I would have easily made my money back on this card and then some. As Tom Vu used to say "Profit! Profit! Profit!"

Not quite as lengthy, but still longer than your typical name.

I was planning to post this a few days after the Expo when Banting was the google doodle of the day. Instead, here's another SP from this year's Champ's.

Back-to-back days with random gold parallels!

The. Silly. Bunny. Has. Two. Ears...

Can it really be called a throwback jersey when they were still in regular usage in 2003?

And a pair of rather unique autograph signings. These look like they come from the fan appreciation night where the fans literally get the jerseys off the back of the player.